# Fast, accessible redesign for Aquarium Co-Op: +18% conversion rate

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Site-wide (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Themes, page builders & page speed, Layout, fonts & visual design
- Date shared: 2021
- Test run by: [Blend Commerce](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/blend-commerce/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://blendcommerce.com/blogs/our-work/144-increase-in-store-revenue-with-a-growth-partnership
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/aquarium-co-op-speed-accessibility-redesign/

Aquarium Co-Op rebuilt its Shopify store on a fast custom theme with a simpler layout and a more readable yellow-and-black palette, and conversion rate rose 18% quarter on quarter. Blend Commerce ran the redesign as part of a long-running growth partnership. This is a before/after comparison, not a split test.

## Result

**+18% conversion rate**

- Conversion rate: +18%, comparing Q1 2021 with Q4 2020.
- Store revenue: +144% over the same quarters. Most of this likely came from more traffic, not the redesign alone.
- Store sessions: +73%. Traffic rose sharply in the same period, so the revenue number mixes design and traffic effects.
- No split test was run, so none of these changes can be credited to speed or colour on their own.

## Control

The old store ran on a heavily customised Shopify theme (Turbo by Out of the Sandbox). The brand's main colour was green, and the agency felt it could not make that theme any faster.

## Variant

A new custom theme built from Shopify's Debut theme, with speed as the core goal and a simpler layout. The primary colour moved from green to yellow with black text so more people could read it easily.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- A faster site lowers the chance that shoppers give up while pages load, especially on mobile.
- Black text on yellow gives stronger contrast than the old green, which can make prices and buttons easier to read.
- A simpler layout can cut the effort needed to find and buy a product.
- Q1 often brings new hobbyists after the holidays, so some of the lift may be seasonal (our guess, not stated by the source).

## Caveats

This compares one quarter with the one before; it is not a split test. Sessions rose 73% in the same period, and seasonality and traffic mix were not controlled.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we move to a faster theme and raise text contrast on key elements, then more visitors will complete a purchase because pages load sooner and are easier to read.
- Primary metric: Conversion rate (orders per session)
- Guardrail: Average order value
- Guardrail: Bounce rate on mobile
- Guardrail: Page load time (Core Web Vitals)
- Who should test it: Stores on a heavy or slow theme with lots of mobile traffic. If your site is already fast and readable, expect a small effect, and a full redesign is hard to split test, so consider testing contrast and layout changes one at a time.

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Credit: Blend Commerce ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/aquarium-co-op-speed-accessibility-redesign/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.